Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gifted English II: Further satire exploration with a Monty Python essay assignment (haHA!) and pre-teaching for Candide. HAVE YOUR SATIRE PACKET so we can discuss both last night's HW (selecting three or four episodes of MP for analysis) and go over the character list for Candide.

AP Lit and Comp: Finish going over Act II questions before I collect them, followed by a quiz that will take some of you the remainder of the period and will work quickly for others.

Sick

In the event that you haven't noticed, I've been out sick for what will now be three days. I have not felt this rotten since the Swine Episode last spring, but it isn't pork-related this time. It's just flu. Blicky, icky, wicky flu.

Consequently: Hamlet test has been postponed until next week. Poetry reading is still tomorrow after school co-hosted by Covert and myself. Hamlet wrap-up and transition will begin tomorrow in class. Please be nice to the sub, even if she does read you beauty tips from fashion magazines. (Or so a student told me in a rambunctious text message.)

I will be at school Thursday morning for first period only due to lack of sub, giving the open-book Candide assessment to the sophys. Sophomores: You can return Candide to the Media Center on Friday; don't forget that we have Benchmark testing Monday and Tuesday. Exciting times at BHS!

I hope no one overdosed on pancakes during the Honors Breakfast. Love to all.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Can y'all believe it's the last day of November--already? Oh, my!

We have a very busy week ahead of us, peeps, with both the Honors Breakfast and the Senior Breakfast during the morning periods AND final deadlines for some colleges AND preparation for a Hamlet test AND a satire essay for the sophys. Much to do, much to do--and progress reports, supposedly, will go home Friday.

We are on a downhill train ride to Winter Break, and we have much to do in the interim.

APees: Today, we need to talk about the semester test; we are going to take it in two parts. The first part will be the day before Winter Break, and will be strictly content-based, multiple choice, on everything from The Awakening and Bovary to Hamlet. The second part, based on an actual AP exam, will be given during the normal testing window in January. I am doing this, like some other AP instructors, because when we resume instruction in January I need to move on quickly to new content in order to prepare you for the national exam in May, and also because I watched the scores plummet last year when we moved exams back those few weeks. Taking a content-specific exam after two weeks of inertia is deleterious to your studies, and I want you all to be successful. ALSO--today, we start really discussing Hamlet, using some guided questions on Act V as a starting point. Why did he fail to avenge his father, but instead ended up avenging his mother (one interpretation)? Why did he fail to act for so long? Is he, as Harold Bloom famously postulated, the first real human being in literature? Why or why not?

Sophys: Catch up, clean up--new content vocabulary is on the board (also from Candide) and the Candide check-reading test will be Thursday. The number of the counting to the day of the test shall therefore be three, not five, nor two, except that thou goest on to three. We need to reintegrate into our satire unit, and I have a creative way of doing that, and then we need to establish due dates and expectations for the Author of the Day presentations. Edusoft Benchmark testing is next week, peeps, but you will earn points for participation.

Friday, November 20, 2009

The last day before a week-long Thanksgiving break!

Gifted English II: Candide vocabulary quiz, further discussions of Candide and Python, and the introduction to a critical thinking unit to parallel our study of satire.

APeeps: Hamlet, Act V--perhaps a conclusion today?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

If you are going with me to Paris this Thanksgiving break, please pop by after school for five minutes to compare notes on iPod chargers and other travel accessories. Oh, and to convince me that I do NOT need a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 cm bag. Like I have 700 dollars hanging around. And if I did, I could get a lot of copies of Jane Eyre for that amount of money, and y'all know how much I like the Bronte thing.

Gifted English II: Satire, satire, satire, and prep for a vocabulary quiz. Good times! How's Candide coming along? Let's talk! I am going to give you the next essay assignment today, too. Just when you thought you couldn't have any more fun. . .

APeeps: Hamlet, Act V. I have the skull prop ready to go. First, though, we need to see Ophelia's mad sequence (which I am posting here momentarily) and take the second quiz on Act IV. Yesterday was more of a reaction prompt; today is specific. SPECIFIC. And focus papers are due on www.turnitin.com by midnight tonight (or e-mailed to me in the event of technical difficulty) and the hard copy is due today, although I will accept them through tomorrow afternoon. I am grading them in Paris.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Gifted English II: Today, we will review the Candide content vocabulary (see list below) and then finish "Python."

APeeps: Act IV Quiz for Hamlet, part I--(Part II is tomorrow, and is more objective) and help with the focus paper. We need to go over the rest of Act IV and then go headlong into Act V. Selected quotes from the play will be on the board; our next critical essay is T.S. Eliot's assessment of Hamlet. Hint: He doesn't like it.

Candide Content Vocabulary List

1. harrowed
2. pensive
3. insolence
4. disconcerted
5. consternation
6. rapacity
7. exquisite
8. prodigious
9. sage
10. laudable

Monday, November 16, 2009

One more week until Thanksgiving break! Good times. We are starting Project X-Mas full-on after the weeklong break, but we are collecting this week, as well. See me if you are interested in helping out.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BOONE BRAVES FOR WINNING OUR BARREL BACK FROM EDGEWATER! 21-14, booyah. Very proud of our team and our kids for having insane team spirit. Wish I could have been there to see the revelries, but I was with you via texting--people kept giving me score updates each quarter. Awesome.

Gifted English II: I do wish to speak to you about the three satirical pieces you've read recently, most notably "Top of the Food Chain" by TC Boyle. Also, we need to review the Candide content vocabulary and establish a firm due date for this short novel. I do have a reading day planned, probably Wednesday. Come in ready to go--we have a LOT to do this week, most of which is super-cool.

APeeps: Cultural Connections to Hamlet. You have a focus paper due THURSDAY, but if you submit it earlier so much the better. Today in class, we are going to review key concepts from Act III and watch a key sequence from a film directly related to Hamlet ideologically. You'll laugh, you'll cry. . .

Friday, November 13, 2009

Dear Students,

Now, I'm really not here. By the time school starts on Friday morning I will be airborne, with any luck, over the metropolitan Orlando area, alighting for a journey to Las Vegas for a wedding. I'm not a fan of Las Vegas in principle, but I'm going in good spirits to support my friend on her wedding day, and I will have my laptop with me for weekend tutoring. I lead a wild, wild life; I am going to Vegas, and I am most excited about the handbag shopping and the wireless internet access.

Be good! Be good! And Varsity football players--destroy the Edgewater team!

Gifted English II: In the satire packet, read the brilliant and hilarious "Top of the Food Chain" by T.C. Boyle, and answer the related questions. You haven't lived until you've envisioned cats in parachutes, "twirling down from the sky like giant oversized snowflakes." We will be doing a media literacy mini-unit Monday morning partially contingent on your understanding of these three pieces--Swift, Twain, and Boyle. Read, grow, understand. Content vocabulary for the novel Candide will be on the board for a quiz next week, as well.

APeeps: Multiple Choice practice session #4. Scantrons are on the front table; do as much as you can. This time, I am logging the scores, and if it seems you Christmas-treed your responses, it will not go well for you. Full credit for honest attempts. Remember that you are shooting for fifty percent for a 3, sixty-five percent for a 4. . .and so on. SHOOT HIGH.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

If you are going on the Paris trip (which only applies to seven or eight of you who read this blog) then the pre-trip travel meeting is tonight in room 313 at seven p.m. While this is certainly not a mandatory meeting, it will be very helpful to get flight numbers, Euro exchange rates, and general weather advisories, plus the pre-trip letter (that you will probably get in the mail anyway) with new TSA packing advisories and packing tips for our purposes. We will be gone for the entire Thanksgiving week!

Gifted English II: Continuation of the Literature of Horror Unit; we need to finish discussing page three of the outline and preparing for Poe. Also, our next literary unit is Candide by Voltaire, and there are 59 copies of the novel available in the media center for checkout all week. WARNING: This novel is controversial; it was banned in 1799 when it was published and has raised hackles ever since. If you are particularly sensitive or have religious objections to such satirical writing, please see me before or after class for an alternate assignment. I will be more than happy to provide such an alternative if you desire, but I would hope that you might give this novel a chance--it is so, so funny and is meant entirely in jest. However, some sensitive readers who may not approve of violence, even in an over-the-top formation that is clearly not meant to be taken literally, are certainly within their rights to ask for a different novel. See me if you have concerns.

APeeps: Hamlet again; either the quiz that was forestalled from yesterday, or a discussion of Act II's complicated soliloquy. All the emo you can handle! NOTE: If you wish to resubmit the MacEssay (please don't, but if you have to. . .) I need them by Friday. Report cards are supposed to go out Friday, but due to the vagaries of the ProgressBookery going on who knows. Pardon me if that sounds cynical. I just work here.

Monday-Friday, December 1-5, 2008

Here is the schedule for the week, for those who like to plan ahead.

Note: Sophomores! Your next literature assignment is Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. I have plenty of copies for you to use, and it is in your textbook, but if you have historically encountered problems with comprehension, you may wish to avail yourself of the No Fear Shakespeare series from Barnes and Noble. This series features the Elizabethan language on one side of the page, with American vernacular on the other. You can get these books at Barnes or on amazon.com, or ask one of the juniors if they kept their copy from last year. You will need it in a week or so.

APees:

Monday: T.S. Eliot and "Prufrock"/Prufrockian Critical Essays (read by Wednesday for timed writing) and distribute Hamlet review sheets for upcoming test.
Tuesday: Comprehensive Hamlet review
Wednesday: Timed Writing on Prufrock and Hamlet
Thursday: Hamlet Unit Test
Friday: Hamlet Focus Paper #2 due by 5 p.m. and transition into existentialism and absurdism

Words of the Day: abstemious, verity, vacuous, debonair, elucidate

Sophys:

Monday: Candide review/characters and themes
Tuesday: Candide essay test (start in class then take home to finish)
Wednesday: Submit essay test/grammar activity/return MP essays for possible resubmission/wrap up satire unit with "Miniver Cheevy"
Thursday: Transition into Julius Caesar/The Tudors and Shakespeare
Friday: Transition part II

Friday, November 28, 2008

Blogging here from Vienna! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving holiday and is preparing for their final weekend of relative freedom from the loving embrace of Orange County Public Schools. Tomorrow morning at 4:45 a.m. I will be going to the Vienna airport to begin a loooong day of travel.

I just wanted to post a few friendly reminders.

• APees: Yes, your paper is due on Friday. Really. And we have a Hamlet test next week, so if you have fallen behind, please catch up now.
• Sophys: Candide MUST be read by Monday and you have a test on Tuesday. I just reread it on the plane for the umpteenth time and want you to be prepared.

These assignments are out of LOVE, people.

• For anyone interested in any of my last three trips ever= Germany this spring break, which still has spots open and will be great now that I've checked out Austrian culture, Paris next fall for graduates only, and Ireland next spring break= we will have a trip meeting Thursday, December 4 in my classroom at 7 p.m. If you can't make this meeting see me Friday for written info.
• Project XMas needs your help!!! This should be our final week. See me, Mary Claire, Kaitlyn, or Maddy if you'd like to help us help our beloved custodians.
  

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sophys: Review format for Monty Python essays, and go over Candide characterization. Possible post-it note quiz. Friendly reminder: Tomorrow is the Guidance visit.

APees: Act V, scene ii. And that's all he wrote.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

There was a delay in posting created by two factors: A) my blog has now been blocked again, thus necessitating my updating only from home, again, and B) the fact that I haven’t been home much lately due to family issues. A thousand apologies.

Sophys: Viewing Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, preparatory to an essay assignment about the satirical elements of said film. Bring a beverage or snack if desired. HW: Please keep reading Candide; we will be discussing in class over the next few days, as well. Author of the Day presentations will continue as normal.

APees: Quotations from Hamlet, Acts I-III, and discussion of the multiple choice selections from this practice session. See notes below. HW: Read Act IV, scenes i-iii.

NOTES ON THE MULTIPLE CHOICE PRACTICE SESSION, 6th Edition Text

Passage One: from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, American writer from the late 1800’s. This passage highlights the sensory details and horror of a man who is being hanged from a bridge during the Civil War, and in the descriptions of his subsequent escape and flight into freedom, many metaphors, vivid details, and high-diction terms are utilized. Prose passage with 12 multiple choice questions; remember, you’re shooting for at least fifty percent. If you missed the answer discussion see me and I’ll give you my key.

Passage Two: “The Fire Fetched Down,” a post-modern poem about Prometheus and the pain knowledge can bring. The people (“They” in the opening line) are at first askance about the acquisition of fire, and are suspicious. Of course, knowledge of the Promethean myth is critical to understanding the poet’s intentions in this piece, and most of the questions are dependent on relating the poem’s content to the myth. However, even if one didn’t parse out the true meaning of the poem, several questions could be answered successfully about particulars in figurative language.

Passage Three: An excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson. This passage, from an expository section of the Gothic novel, relates Jekyll’s scientific process (while refusing to disclose too many details of the actual chemical combination he uncovers) and reveals the exhilaration of embracing one’s inner evil. Many of the questions focus on characterization for this passage, and the high diction Stevenson uses make deciphering his narrator’s intentions a bit of a challenge.

Passage Four: A wonderful poem by Robert Frost, “A Roadside Stand” features two meanings in its title. Ostensibly about a fruit and vegetable stand on the side of a rural road, the poem is really more focused on the disparity between the needs of the urban population and the values of the countryside. Romantic in predisposition, this poem seems topical for its publication timeframe—the Eisenhower era of prosperity—and criticizes the hustle and bustle of materialistic city dwellers who only stop by the stand for directions or to form a U-turn. The questions related to this passage focus on both content and form, and ask several detailed queries about figurative language. This poem overall is much more readable and easy to analyze than the Promethean poem of the second passage.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

TODAY IS ELECTION DAY. Prepare for heavier traffic than normal near polling places, and for a LOT of political coverage on the local and national news outlets. Be an informed and educated electorate and know what's going on!

Seniors: Herff Jones will be back on campus on Wednesday and Thursday so that you may order your caps and gowns if you have not already done so. You may also order these items on the website; I believe that there is a link on the BHS homepage.

Gifted English II: Two Author of the Day presentations in each class and completion of the critical thinking unit we started yesterday. Please begin reading Candide by Voltaire if you have not already done so; there is a helpful character list in the satire packet to help you if you find confusion. (Personally, I think the book is fairly clear. . .but take a look and ask me if you have any questions.)

APees: Hamlet, further defined, and the conclusion of Act III.

Monday, October 20, 2008

I have to leave today immediately after seventh period (possibly ten minutes before the end of the period, if I can get someone to cover my class) so I won't be able to give make-up work after school. I will be available tomorrow until around 5:15 p.m. for anyone who needs to finish any assignments.

APees: Hamlet, Act I, scene ii soliloquy and the rest of Act I.

Gifted English II: The beginning of the mini-unit on the Icarus unit. Also--the next text we are going to be reading outside of class is Voltaire's Candide. I'll be mentioning a few things about this satirical novel over the next few days.

Reminder to sophys: Count of Monte Cristo paper is due on www.turnitin.com by Wednesday night at midnight, with the hard copy turned in the next day for comments.